News & Events

2022

September 14th, 2022: A Conversation with Kate Hopper at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis
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September 15th, 2022: Reading & Slideshow hosted by Mark Ehling with Mark Neely & others, Location TBD, Minneapolis
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November 17th, 2022: If This Were Fiction Reading at the Words & Music Festival, New Orleans
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Jill Christman Follow

Writing essays to make sense of it all: @cnfonline, @FourthGenre, @brevitymag, @IHLR. Mom, @riverteeth editor, 2020 @NEAarts fellow, @indeliblepod activist.

Jill Christman @jill_christman ·

Is everybody seeing this? Our very own Martone. We love him so much. @4foraQuarter @s_martone @bsuenglish @UofAlabama

Indiana Authors Awards @INAuthorsAwards

Our last author spotlight of the day is Michael Martone, whose book "The Complete Writings of Art Smith, the Bird Boy of Fort Wayne" is shortlisted in the fiction category.

🏠Michael grew up in Fort Wayne and now lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

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Jill Christman @jill_christman ·

12h

Of course everyone needs to delete their period tracking apps, but we don’t need to be sold special calendars. Get back capitalist overseers. We’ve got this.

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Jill Christman @jill_christman ·

23h

Syllabusing over here. Building Books Out of Tiny True Things. It's going to be epic. @bsuenglish

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If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays

Jun 6, 2022

If This Were Fiction is a love story—for Jill Christman’s long-ago fiancé, who died young in a car accident; for her children; for her husband, Mark; and ultimately, for herself. In this collection, Christman takes on the wide range of situations and landscapes she encountered on her journey from wild child through wounded teen to mother, teacher, writer, and wife. Coming out in the American Lives series from University of Nebraska Press on September 1st, 2022.

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“Mr. Cosmos” at New Ohio Review

Nov 27, 2021 | Announcements, Single Publications

The title character of “Mr. Cosmos” is my fifth-grade science teacher from Newbury Elementary School in Massachusetts—a man so wonderful he would leap on his desk and do interpretive dances …

If This Were Fiction

Nov 23, 2021 | Announcements, Single Publications

My new book has a due date! I’ve been writing essays for over fifteen years, and it’s been a glorious ride, but I’ve never put out a collection of just Jill Christman essays between two covers …

Indelible

Nov 12, 2021 | Announcements

In teaching news, Ball State honored my work with a group of students dedicated to raising awareness and providing resources around the issue of sexual violence on our nation’s campuses with a 2021 Immersive Learning Faculty Award. If you’re a member of a university community, I hope you’ll check out the details of our project at IndeliblePodcast.com …

Jill Spends Time at Essay Daily

“Jill Christman: Indelible (Campus Sexual Assault): a class, a podcast, & a conversation “ (April 13, 2020)

“Jill Christman on Writing Sexual Trauma Under Title IX—‘Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter’:
Writing Sexual Trauma Under Title IX” (December 13, 2018)

“What Happened on June 21st 2018” (July 5, 2018)

“Jill Christman on Essays to Pry Open Doors: Ashley C. Ford, Alysia Sawchyn, & Brittany Means” (December 22, 2017)

“Jill Christman on Kathy Winograd’s ‘Bathing’” (January 27, 2014)

“5 Reasons I Can’t Stop Reading & Teaching Jo Ann Beard’s ‘The Fourth State of Matter’” (September 16, 2013)

“Dec 2, Brenda Miller on Jill Christman” (December 2, 2012)

If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays

“Mr. Cosmos” at New Ohio Review

The title character of “Mr. Cosmos” is my fifth-grade science teacher from Newbury Elementary School in Massachusetts—a man so wonderful he would leap on his desk and do interpretive dances …

If This Were Fiction

Spinning: Against the Rules of Angels

Spinning: Against the Rules of Angels was Creative Nonfiction Magazine’s True Story. Issue #12, 2017. For years, Jill Christman has been waiting for her long-lost lover to communicate with her from beyond the grave. Finally, he walks into her early-morning exercise class, setting her world awhirl.

Indelible

Falling

“Falling”—a longform essay—won the 2021 Iron Horse Literary Review Long Story Contest and was later released by IHLR released in a beautiful, illustrated, e-single that you can download for free. The essay’s core narrative chronicles the writer’s son’s fall from a sugar maple tree and explores how we navigate the scariest things and most profound losses.

Darkroom: A Family Exposure

Winner of Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, Darkroom: A Family Exposure is Jill Christman’s gripping, funny, and wise account of her first thirty years. Although her story runs the gamut of dramatic life events, including childhood sexual abuse, accidental death, and psychological trauma, Christman’s poignant memoir is much more than a litany of horrors; instead, it is an open-eyed, wide-hearted, and good-humored look at a life worth surviving.